He thought about it for a moment. ‘My ex,’ he admitted.
‘It’s not amicable between you and your ex, then?’ she asked, latching onto a topic that would hopefully wipe his sexy smile off his sexy lips.
‘Depends.’
‘On what?’
He shrugged. ‘The day of the week? Whether Mercury is in retrograde...who knows.’
He was frowning now. That was good. ‘Never a dull moment, huh?’
‘It’s not too bad, really,’ he dismissed. ‘A couple of blips along the way. Let’s just say moving away was a good thing. For both of us. It was more than time to cut the umbilical cord.’
And if he’d only done it earlier, the impulsive event on the eve of his departure might never have happened.
Madeline heard the wistful note to his voice and forgot about the traffic and the other people around them. He sounded vulnerable and she walked on, hyper-aware of Marcus’s arm as it occasionally brushed hers, lost for something to say.
‘But, hey, I don’t want to put you off,’ he said after a long pause in the conversation. ‘Just because marriage wasn’t for me doesn’t mean that it won’t work out for you and what’s his-name.’
‘Simon,’ she said automatically, as she put one foot in front of the other.
‘Of course, while distance is good for exes, it kind of sucks for couples.’
‘Yes, thank you, Marcus. I do believe I’ve already heard your theory on that. Have you forgotten we live in the same city?’
‘Doesn’t matter if you live in the same apartment if you never see each other.’
‘We’re fine. Really.’
The smile she gave Marcus didn’t quite reach her eyes but she sure sounded convinced so who was he to question? He’d certainly made a screw-up of his own marriage so what qualifications did he have to judge how other people conducted their relationships? Different strokes for different folks.
But, he realised as he kept a close eye on Connor, that despite only knowing her for three days she’d got to him —more than just physically. He’d seen more of Maddy emotionally than he’d seen of most women he’d known for months, even years.
He’d seen her furious — spitting chips, her eyes glittering angrily at him. Deeply sad when she’d talked about her sister. Sassy when she’d been teasing him about his hocus-pocus. Professional when he’d help her resuscitate Mrs Sanders. And then fragile and vulnerable when he had massaged her feet and neck to ease the grip of her migraine.
He cared about what happened to her. The thought of her wasting away in a relationship with an absentee partner was awful. And although there was a line between them that decent guys just didn’t cross, he realised he wanted her for himself.
Fuck! Just what he needed — to develop an obsession with a woman who’d made a promise to another man!
Madeline looked over at him and saw the slight chink in his smile and felt guilty. She was pretending that all was well with her and Simon and, no doubt, rekindling bad memories of his failed marriage. Had she rubbed salt into his wounds?
She touched his elbow lightly. ‘I’m sure there’s someone else out there, Marcus. Just for you.’
‘Oh, God! I hope not,’ he said as he continued walking.
Madeline heard the vehemence in his voice. Boy, his ex had sure done a number on his head. ‘You shouldn’t let one bad experience put you off,’ she persisted, catching him up.
‘Oh, yes. Yes, I should.’
‘But —’
‘Maddy,’ he cut in, ‘it’s okay. I like it this way. I date. I have fun. I keep it light. No promises. I wouldn’t have it any other way.’
It sounded horrible but at least Madeline knew now what an involvement with him would mean, should she be stupid enough to ever contemplate it. Just because the man had given her a fever that no amount of paracetamol would cure, it didn’t mean they were compatible.
‘So, what? It’s just sex? Just flings?’ She shook her head in disgust. ‘I could never get involved with someone like you. What about commitment? Love?’
‘Been there, done that. Paid the lawyers and all I got was a lousy T-shirt.’
She looked at him sharply and saw he was laughing at her. ‘I don’t think this is very funny.’
Marcus smothered his mirth. ‘Sorry.’ He held up his hand. ‘Look, I have a skewed view. I know that. My mother has three divorces to her name, my hardly-ever-there father two and me one. I have two sisters that are divorced and one who’s a single mother. Not good odds. But, hey, I’m sure you and Simon are going to be blissfully happy.’
Why did he make it sound so silly? So quaint? His criticism
of Simon came back to her and his casual attitude to something that deserved more than that, was pissing her off. She stopped walking, suddenly not wanting his negativity anywhere near her.
Veering off to the side of the footpath, she held up her hand at a passing taxi.
‘What are you doing?’
‘I’m tired of this conversation and I don’t want to walk with you anymore.’
The cab on the opposite side of the road indicated it was turning around for her.
‘Very mature,’ he said.
She could hear the smile in his voice but refused to look back at his open shirt and his damn six-pack. ‘I thought so.’
The cab pulled up and Madeline waved at Connor as she opened the door, throwing over her shoulder, ‘Oh, Marcus, talking about mature, I’m sending you a patient called Connie first thing in the morning. Does that suit?’
Marcus eyed her suspiciously, liking how her eyes glittered and her cheeks glowed. ‘She’s a mess, isn’t she?’
She laughed. ‘You’re the one with the crystal ball — you tell me.’ And she slid into the taxi and shut the door.
‘Did you make her mad, Uncle Marcus?’ asked Connor, coming to a sliding stop beside him.
Marcus winced. ‘I think so...’
‘She’ll never be your girlfriend if you make her mad.’
Great. Just what he needed - dating tips from a six-year-old.
‘Don’t you know anything?’ Connor asked, looking at his uncle like he was the village idiot.
Marcus laughed and ruffled his nephew’s hair. He knew two things. One, he loved a challenge. And, two, Madeline Harrington, as unavailable as she was, was completely and utterly delicious.
CHAPTER FIVE
MARCUS had half an hour before the arrival of his first-ever patient in his new practice. He could smell the nose-hair stripping aroma of paint, built up to near toxic levels from the offices being shut up all night, and he quickly opened all the windows and lit an incense stick placing it on the front counter to help disperse the chemical odour.
He wandered into his office and approved of how it looked. It was tranquil, the neutral wall colour had the slightest hint of green and natural light filled the room from the skylight he’d had installed in the ceiling. On two walls he had a sequential series of framed paintings. The scenes depicted a rainforest at different times of the day. Marcus loved their restful quality.
On the wall where his desk was positioned he had his framed qualifications because, more often than not in his line of work, people demanded to see them. He smiled, thinking about it — no one ever asked their GPs for their qualifications! On the fourth wall there was a variety of different charts. One was a map of the iris for iridology purposes, another the foot for reflexology, and the last one mapped the human chakras.